Dell Releases High-End Multimedia Desktop

The XPS 420 is aimed at multimedia enthusiasts who "need more PC" for their burgeoning HD video hobby, whether that hobby is HD video consumption or creation.

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Dell has announced the availability of the XPS 420 desktop, which is geared to the multimedia enthusiast market, including both prosumer audio/video enthusiasts and home-office/small-office multimedia professionals. The XPS 420 will start at $1,499 with a dual-core Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics, with a myriad of upgrades available.

The XPS 420 will be available with virtually all the upgrades available to the XPS 720 series, including quad-core processors up to the Extreme Edition CPUs, single nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics (the 720 can hold two graphics cards), Ageia PhysX physics card, wireless networking and Bluetooth, Blu-ray optical drive(s), dual hard drives, and various TV tuners up to and including the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable tuner (CableCARD).

The XPS 420's MiniView display uses Microsoft's SideShow technology to show the user supplemental customizable information. You can use the 3-by-2-inch, 320-by-240-resolution MiniView full color display to show date/time info, audio playback info, your pictures, videos, webcam views, and a specialized PC monitor that shows you the "health" of your system. Since SideShow is based on a Vista standard, you will be able to download new SideShow gadgets when they are developed and released by the Vista community.

The XPS 420 includes other enthusiast-friendly features like cable management and a rubberized top panel (for resting your MP3 player or your digital camera's cords). Dell's Xcelerator is a multimedia co-processor and software bundle meant to help transcode tasks, like taking your HD camcorder footage and transcoding it to MPEG-4 for your iPod or PSP. It can also "Transrate" so you can shrink MPEG-2 files to fit on a single layer DVD or "Transscale" so you can convert HD camcorder footage to play on a standard-definition DVD. Blu-ray burners are also available if you would like to keep your footage in the HD realm.

Like all XPS desktops, the XPS 420 comes with Dell's XPS-centric support, and a 15-month subscription to McAfee's Internet Security Suite and antivirus protection. Rounding out the software is Adobe's Elements Studio, which includes the full versions of Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6, Premiere Elements 4, and Soundbooth CS3.
Look for my review of the XPS 420 on PCMag.com in the coming week, but so far it looks like the XPS 420 is well suited for multimedia enthusiasts who "needs more PC" for their burgeoning HD video hobby, whether that hobby is HD video consumption or creation.

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